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CQ Notes from an old paddles

taxi1

Well-Known Member
pilot
I wrote these down many, many years (last century, actually) and feel bad for not sharing them, because they're so damn good. They were literally in the wrong file format, WordPerfect, so had to translate them. Thought I'd throw them out there for our young lads and lasses to use or ignore. Feel free to take issue with all of them.

Background, E2 guy, then T2 instructor. Squadron and then Training LSO. Did the hummer pipeline back when you did Buckeyes first, then went to Corpus Christi. We did the full CNATRA CQ in one day back then (4 T&G, 10 traps) which made for a long ass day, by the way.

First Rec...

It Puts the Smudge on the Ball (and Doesn't Move It)
A lot of students tend to chase the amber doughnut with their nose, for obvious reasons (it does make it appear randomly). This drill was to reinforce that idea that Power + Attitude = Performance (is that still a thing in training?) I would get the stud set up long in the groove, on speed and on glideslope, and have him take his greasy unwashed glove and make a little smudge on the windscreen over the FLOLS, then give him the aircraft and tell him to just keep the smudge on the FLOLS, using only his power to control glideslope, and OBTW don't forget lineup. Forget AOA. In fact, I'd dim it so he couldn't see it. Just keep the smudge on the ball. I threatened to punch him/her in the back of the head so hard their significant other got contact CTE if they let it move.

Actually this was before CTE was a thing and we still enjoyed NFL greatest hits videos.

Usual first result was a ball sagging and then going completely off the top as they over corrected and leveled off at 300' AGL a few times, then the finesse started kicking in. It really helped with power awareness. Then they would bring the AOA back into the scan, and see how AOA might still move a bit, but it was all slow and fixable. Usually. Some guys just insisted on using the PCLs as on/off switches.

Once they had a properly calibrated smudge, it would work in the pattern all day. The smudge varied a little based on the day's winds, etc., so it required some minor thinking. The big thing was developing an awareness of using the sight picture out the windscreen as the attitude instrument, and the AOA as the performance instrument.

This was really obvious from the back seat of the Buckeye, with the long snout and distance to the smudge making small pitch movements pop out, so I would demo this at the end of a BI or RI flight to get the idea into their awareness.

IMHO, YMMV, etc.
 
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taxi1

Well-Known Member
pilot
Worked for Orville and Wilbur.

As an OBTW, I was an OCF instructor, and particularly following an inverted spin hop, the attitude gyro would be totally fubar on the way home. It was illuminating to watch the students try to fly VFR with a screwed up gyro. You might want to look outside, shipmate...

So after that, on all of my safe for solo checks, I would cover the gyro with tape in their cockpit (having checked that no gyro was not a downing gripe on a VFR solo hop). First, it gave me a reputation as a $%^ to fly checks with. Second, it was massively interesting to see just how gyro-crippled all of the studs were on a VFR hop. Good training!
 

mad dog

the 🪨 🗒️ ✂️ champion
pilot
Contributor
I wrote these down many, many years (last century, actually) and feel bad for not sharing them, because they're so damn good. They were literally in the wrong file format, WordPerfect, so had to translate them. Thought I'd throw them out there for our young lads and lasses to use or ignore. Feel free to take issue with all of them.

Background, E2 guy, then T2 instructor. Squadron and then Training LSO. Did the hummer pipeline back when you did Buckeyes first, then went to Corpus Christi. We did the full CNATRA CQ in one day back then (4 T&G, 10 traps) which made for a long ass day, by the way.

First Rec...

It Puts the Smudge on the Ball (and Doesn't Move It)
A lot of students tend to chase the amber doughnut with their nose, for obvious reasons (it does make it appear randomly). This drill was to reinforce that idea that Power + Attitude = Performance (is that still a thing in training?) I would get the stud set up long in the groove, on speed and on glideslope, and have him take his greasy unwashed glove and make a little smudge on the windscreen over the FLOLS, then give him the aircraft and tell him to just keep the smudge on the FLOLS, using only his power to control glideslope, and OBTW don't forget lineup. Forget AOA. In fact, I'd dim it so he couldn't see it. Just keep the smudge on the ball. I threatened to punch him/her in the back of the head so hard their significant other got contact CTE if they let it move.

Actually this was before CTE was a thing and we still enjoyed NFL greatest hits videos.

Usual first result was a ball sagging and then going completely off the top as they over corrected and leveled off at 300' AGL a few times, then the finesse started kicking in. It really helped with power awareness. Then they would bring the AOA back into the scan, and see how AOA might still move a bit, but it was all slow and fixable. Usually. Some guys just insisted on using the PCLs as on/off switches.

Once they had a properly calibrated smudge, it would work in the pattern all day. The smudge varied a little based on the day's winds, etc., so it required some minor thinking. The big thing was developing an awareness of using the sight picture out the windscreen as the attitude instrument, and the AOA as the performance instrument.

This was really obvious from the back seat of the Buckeye, with the long snout and distance to the smudge making small pitch movements pop out, so I would demo this at the end of a BI or RI flight to get the idea into their awareness.

IMHO, YMMV, etc.
Thanks for posting those notes...I’ve always thought of the CV LSO job as very interesting.

At our AOCS reunion last September in Pensacola, FL, I was able to talk with a fellow AOCS grad...he was two classes ahead of me at AOCS and we were at VT-2 as SNAs. He is a somewhat recently retired O-6, a VAW guy and an LSO...he was wearing a cool looking dark blue paddles golf shirt the first night of the reunion and that’s what got me going. Anyway, I bombarded him with all sorts of questions regarding LSOing...and after about 30 minutes of my pesterfest, I believe he became annoyed so he quietly dismissed me. I was sad. :( Also, I noticed that he was avoiding me during the second day of the reunion. I was sad again. :(
 
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mad dog

the 🪨 🗒️ ✂️ champion
pilot
Contributor
@taxi1 ...in your opinion, which stiff wing aircraft is the most difficult to land on the CV?

Easiest?
 

taxi1

Well-Known Member
pilot
Hummer, or the Whale (I'm that old) back in the day. F14? Those guys were flopping all over the place.

Hornets, obviously for easiest. They polluted the top ten list in our line periods.

I came in #2 for a line period, ahead of Snort Snodgrass and Jungle Jim Ross. My crowning aviation achievement, other than having the same number of takeoffs and landings.
 

Brett327

Well-Known Member
None
Super Moderator
Contributor
Hummer, or the Whale (I'm that old) back in the day. F14? Those guys were flopping all over the place.

Hornets, obviously for easiest. They polluted the top ten list in our line periods.

I came in #2 for a line period, ahead of Snort Snodgrass and Jungle Jim Ross. My crowning aviation achievement, other than having the same number of takeoffs and landings.
You should check out PLM on the Rhinos. It will blow your mind.
 

mad dog

the 🪨 🗒️ ✂️ champion
pilot
Contributor
Hummer, or the Whale (I'm that old) back in the day. F14? Those guys were flopping all over the place.

Hornets, obviously for easiest. They polluted the top ten list in our line periods.

I came in #2 for a line period, ahead of Snort Snodgrass and Jungle Jim Ross. My crowning aviation achievement, other than having the same number of takeoffs and landings.
Royer...good info...thanks.

Also, which trainer from that era was more difficult to land on the CV...the T-2 or the TA-4?
 

taxi1

Well-Known Member
pilot
Royer...good info...thanks.

Also, which trainer from that era was more difficult to land on the CV...the T-2 or the TA-4?
Buckeye. Lighter wing loading so a bit more gust responsive, and it's nose pitched with power (low thrust line). But harder is a relative term. Just my opinion!

I remember standing on the platform waving our T2 studs, and one marine reported abeam with some unimportant warning light and said, "I don't know what the hell to do!" Another squadron's LSO helpfully suggested that we tell him to roll inverted and pull.
 

taxi1

Well-Known Member
pilot
#2. If it Feels Right, it’s Wrong

This one might be hard to work in a single seat cockpit.

Had a new guy in the fleet squadron who had managed to train in some bad habits in the pattern that left him floundering a bit in FCLPs and at the boat. Basically, what felt right to him was wrong. I forget the details of what it was, probably too much rate of descent off the 180, fly through up at the start. He struggled to break out of his rut. It was wired in deep.

We were flying together in the Hummer, where we’d swap seats when it is each person’s turn to fly in FCLPs. When I got in the left seat, instead of flying, I had him fly FCLPs from the right seat. We had a single set of indexers (new E2's have two?), but you could turn them so he could see them. It’s an awkward feeling, since we always flew at the boat from the left seat. From left hand on yoke and right on throttle, to the other way. You have to think until it gets internalized.

Whereas before he could drone around the pattern unthinking, letting his lizard brain do the piloting, now he had to think again. His pattern work was roughed up, as you’d expect, but by forcing him to think instead of feel, he was able to build in some new habit patterns for numbers and sight picture. His errors were now bracketing the ideal, rather than deviating in one direction. We did two sessions from the right. Then, swapping back to the left, he was able to keep it going. He’d occasionally fly with his right hand from the left seat for a few seconds to help lock it in.

In a single seater, maybe you could set the power and just work the stick with your left hand a bit in order to decouple the brain/movement link and make you think. YMMV, JMHO, etc.
 

FinkUFreaky

Well-Known Member
pilot
That #2 sounds... interesting? I remember taking a couple practice flights flying in the right seat for a super STANX, and actually had to get out of the habit patterns of trying to fly the ball/etc. and instead just fly safe single-engine passes haha. I guess it could be different with a nugget fresh from the RAG vice having only flown in the left seat for 2+ years, half on workups/deployment.
 

taxi1

Well-Known Member
pilot
#3: High Coming Down, 90 to the 45

This one generated controversy in the ready room.

Geometrically speaking, the ideal pattern would lead you to have a high ball coming down as you come through the 90 - 45 degree position. To illustrate it, I’d ask the students to assume you can actually see the ball at the 180 and all the way around the pattern. Yes, it’s a magical ball. Assume you keep it centered all the way around. What would be the altitude you’d fly around the pattern, and what would be your descent rate at each point, 180, 135, 90, 45, in the groove? Particularly, what would be the altitude for a centered ball at the 180?

The gut answer is saying 800’ AGL at the 180, but the gut is wrong. In fact, you’d start at 0’ AGL at the 180, with a 500’ FPM climb rate, going up the glideslope, because you’re going away from the intended point of landing. At the 90, with a centered ball, you’d have to have a 0’ FPM descent rate, as you travel perpendicular to the glideslope. Then your descent rate would need to steadily increase until you are heading directly back downhill.

Since what you’d like is a nice, constant power setting and descent rate from the 180 to touchdown (with a short decrement to bleed off the speed when you roll wings level in the groove), then in order to not have a 0’ FPM descent rate at the 90, you need to see a high ball coming down there. How high? A ball high when you picked it up seemed to work.

This was some graduate level stuff for those who catch flies with chopsticks. It confused the average SNA who was better served just moving the controls to keep it in the middle once they picked it up, chasing the latest deviation caused by their response to the previous deviation. But for the ones ready to peel back the onion of knowledge, this was a wee step up the ladder.
 
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